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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22926547">Up in Smoke</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/hibiren/pseuds/hibiren'>hibiren</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Final Fantasy XV</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, Angst, Arguing, Bad Decisions, Catharsis, Cigarettes, Conversations, Emotional, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Feels, Gen, Gladnis, Late Night Conversations, Late at Night, M/M, Older Chocobros (Final Fantasy XV), One Shot, Post-Canon, Sad and Sweet, Self-Reflection, Smoking, Stargazing</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 06:33:49</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,508</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22926547</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/hibiren/pseuds/hibiren</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Again, Gladiolus raised his cigarette to his lips. Took a breath that was almost too deep. When he let out a low growl of a frustrated sigh, the smoke that curled out from his mouth poured free; as if he were a dragon and fire conjured deep in his belly ready to be expelled at a moment’s notice.</p><p>But he was no dragon, and there was no fire.</p><p>He was just a man. Just <i>one</i> man.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Gladiolus Amicitia/Ignis Scientia</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Up in Smoke</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I had this image of older Gladio, sitting on a roof alone and smoking a cigarette, in my head last night... it kept lingering with me so I decided to write something and that little scene ended up evolving into something more. I hope you enjoy!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It was too quiet at that hour of night.</p><p>Gladiolus sat alone on the roof. The concrete beneath his back provided no comfort, but it did him some good to get away from the claustrophobia that always chased two steps behind him whenever he was in the city.</p><p>Again, Gladiolus raised his cigarette to his lips. Took a breath that was almost too deep. When he let out a low growl of a frustrated sigh, the smoke that curled out from his mouth poured free; as if he were a dragon and fire conjured deep in his belly ready to be expelled at a moment’s notice.</p><p>But he was no dragon, and there was no fire.</p><p>He was just a man. Just <em>one</em> man.</p><p>It took Gladiolus many years to understand that, but peace came with its acceptance. Even if guilt followed in the shadows, reared up like a nightmare in the dark when he turned his head. He had one job, and he had failed. If he had been stronger… if he had been more prepared, if he had been able to control his fear. If - if, if, if.</p><p>On nights like this, when the sky was just a little too peaceful, the winds too gentle, the sounds of the city bustle too silenced - Gladiolus went up to the roof to smoke. It was his private release, his forbidden anchor. And he needed another. Only a few more hours until sunrise. Until he had to return to society as if nothing was wrong, go back to rebuilding all the things he had destroyed. As if nothing was wrong.</p><p>There was only one cigarette left in the pack. He placed it between his lips and tried to ignore the bitter taste within the paper. It only took Gladiolus one try, now, to light it. One flick of the lighter, a brandish of his hand against the night sky and the flame appeared like a candle, a beacon, bringing him to his salvation. Or perhaps leading him back home to his own ignorance. Some magic that was, if cowardice could count for it.</p><p>Iris would murder him if she found out about his habit. And then Ignis would kill him a second time over, if he’d known that Gladiolus hadn’t quit. Gladiolus had been known to smoke around Ignis before, quite a few times toward the end. <em>I just need a minute,</em> he would say to the Tactician, who would just shake his head - but in a gesture of understanding rather than dismissal.</p><p><em>Be quick,</em> Ignis would say, and walk away to leave him alone with his thoughts and his lighter.</p><p>Ignis.</p><p>How did he do it, maintain such calm, under all that fear? Gladiolus had only seen Ignis cry twice in his life, in all the long years they’d known each other. And that was only counting the times he’d let himself be seen. He was sure Ignis had his own set of self-destructive habits, performed in secret where no one could see his shame. They all did. Gladiolus saw it in Prompto first, after everything was over. His lips had been picked raw, scabbed over, picked until they tore again, and his fingertips bled from tearing his nails into oblivion.</p><p>Gladiolus on the other hand, made a point to never let his own weakness show in front of others. It was a private, selfish act, frustration at its peak, when the tears slipped free. He was just one man. A man undeserving of catharsis who failed to protect his King and his people. The people who now carried on as if things were, in the end, <em>going to be okay.</em></p><p>Another breath in, and then a forced hiss of a slow exhale that left him feeling hollow; empty inside. With all that smoke there, filling him, seeping into every crack in his armor, Gladiolus would have thought that it helped. But it only served to drive him further apart. And he wasn’t sure how much longer he could pretend that he was holding on.</p><p>Somewhere behind Gladiolus, a door opened. It was by the slight catch of shoes against the roof that he knew he’d been caught. But by who? At least if it was Prompto, he could humor the thought of asking the blond to join him.</p><p>“Gladiolus?” came the Tactician’s voice; faint, soft, shaken. A few more unsteady steps and then Ignis stood behind him. “Prompto said I might find you up here… alone…”</p><p>“Shouldn’t you both be asleep? It’s late,” muttered Gladiolus, frowning, scrambling to shove the empty pack and his lighter in his pocket. Even though it was an unneeded gesture.</p><p>Ignis frowned too, lines worn well deep into his scarred skin. It made Gladiolus flinch, and he was glad - selfishly - that Ignis couldn’t see him do it.</p><p>“I’m well aware of the time. You should be asleep as well. But instead you’re out here subjecting us all to a fire hazard, is it?” His words were perhaps a bit too harsh, but, they were all wound a bit too tight nowadays. “Please, Gladiolus, you must stop this.”</p><p>“You’re in luck. That was my last one,” quipped the Shield, before standing and shoving his way past Ignis on his way back toward the door that led him back down to the main floors.</p><p>Ignis let him gain a few steps away before snapping out sharply in his authoritative tone,</p><p>
  <em>“Gladiolus!”</em>
</p><p>Immediately, he froze in his tracks.</p><p>“I’m… past the point of saying this as a friend. So now I’m speaking as a Tactician. Gladiolus, please, you’re destroying yourself. You traded one harmful outlet for another and that has Prompto worried sick. And… I as well.”</p><p><em>Well who fucking cares about Prompto,</em> Gladiolus bit back, finding some sense not to make things worse. He was old enough to know that speaking out only did just that. He shoved his hand into his pocket and gripped his lighter tightly.</p><p>Ignis took a deep breath before continuing. “Please, let tonight be your last night doing this. You know you’re not alone. You have us. And more than that… even if I’m speaking selfishly, you have me. It pains me to know you’re suffering in such silence.”</p><p>Gladiolus scoffed, but his shoulders trembled. When Ignis reached up to rest a gloved palm against the curve between his shoulders and his neck, Gladiolus broke down.</p><p>“I can’t let you hurt any more because of me, Iggy.”</p><p>The Tactician’s eyebrow raised, ever so slightly, at the use of his old nickname.</p><p>“Then, would you do me a favor, and take care of yourself for once?” Ignis asked, and the weary smile that tugged at his lips spoke more than his words ever could have. “I would hurt no longer.”</p><p>“That an order?”</p><p>“You know I can’t do that, Gladiolus. It’s up to you, in the end, what you choose to do. We’re our own orders now.” After a long pause, Ignis added, after touching the faint lines of scars on his own cheek, “Noct would… would have wanted the same, I’m sure.”</p><p>As if in answer, a comet flashed in from out of nowhere and burned across the sky - bright blues and greens and sparks of orange danced over their heads in what felt like an infinite, yet instantaneous, moment. Ignis blinked when Gladiolus turned his head, somehow knowing that something was there.</p><p>Just then, Prompto burst through the door and ran up to the two, pointing at the sky and stammering until Gladiolus thumped him hard enough on the back to get him to contain himself.</p><p>“Calm down,” Gladiolus said with a faintly humorless laugh, and Ignis only sighed.</p><p><em>“Holy</em> - did… d-did you… are you… you guys <em>seeing</em> this?! I-I… I gotta - I <em>gotta</em> take a picture or something!!” Prompto rushed, nearly dropping his camera in the process. He managed to snap a single shot before the comet’s light burned out and he bounced nervously on his feet as the picture printed.</p><p>Gladiolus sighed and gently took Ignis by the arm and pulled him to sit down on the concrete, even waving Prompto over to join him after a moment. This was the first time in many months that all three of them had stayed within five feet of each other for longer than a minute. It would have been a sin to ignore a sign like that.</p><p>“I think… we all need to talk; catch up, y’know. Say what’s really been on our minds. I think it’s been overdue for a while now,” the Shield suggested, only for a moment forgetting the weight of the lighter in his pocket. Both Prompto and Ignis nodded their agreement. Prompto set the now-developed picture down in front of the three and took a moment to stutter out an attempt at a description of exactly what was inside that frame to Ignis, who somehow, as Tacticians do, already knew.</p><p>In the end it was Noctis who brought them together again, just as he had kept them together all those years ago…</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I need to get better at finding healthy ways of catharsis myself (lol) so I suppose this fic is a way for me to deal with all the things going around in my head right now. 2020 has had an insanely rough start, but, better to get all of that out of the way now before moving onto a better, more true beginning of the year... right? Thank you all for your support whether it's been on discord, twitter, or on here, it really means a lot to me! You guys are the best &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
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